One of the services we try to provide you with if you're going on a cruise — in addition to good deals, interesting personality pieces, a personal look at the news and so on — is what you might call "tips for cruising." Today is one of them, and one that never occurred to us until we read about a couple on a Transatlantic cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Europe on the Emerald Princess.
It's about cellphones.
The couple, Ronald and Donna Schmidt, told Melanie Payne of news-press.com in Florida that they were hit with $47 in roaming charges incurred while NOT 
using their phones on a cruise. The Schmidts were gone 17 days, put their phones in the stateroom safe and decided to let the batteries drain throughout the cruise.
That cost them.
When they explained this to their carrier, Verizon, they were told there is a big sign on the gangplank telling passengers to turn off their cellphones.
In all our cruises, we have NEVER seen such a sign.
But that's not the point, which is that leaving your cellphone "on" when cruising can incur roaming charges. Once you leave your carrier's network area, your phone searches for another network and another signal. It will likely pick up the ship's network and if somebody calls you, send a text or transmits a photo, you will probably pay for roaming…whether you see the call/text or not. So the best thing to do is turn off the phone.
If on the other hand your phone is a "smartone," you can put it on "airplane mode" and you'll be able to use its other functions without ever connecting to the ship's network, which has been known to cost $5 a minute for roaming.
Just remember the mode is "airplane" even though you're on a "cruise ship."
Carnival Glory
7 nights
April 27, 2014
Miami (return): Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman
Inside: $449
Cost per day: $64
www.carnival.com